EU Agri spokes person, Mr. Roger Waite, has posted on social media some important news on the future of the CAP. The Commissioner Ciolos expressed his considerable frustration at this new negotiating box: “The Van Rompuy paper goes against our efforts to make CAP fairer, greener & more efficient; it stands to slow the important stimulus for jobs and growth that agriculture is giving to the economy, and slow down further investment and the modernisation of the sector. It is illogical and hypocritical to call for significant cuts in Direct Payments, yet at the same time to remove our proposal for a compulsory limit on the direct payments that the richest, most efficient farms. This is not the “better spending” that we in the European Commission have championed in our proposals.”

The Van Rompuy paper has not yes been agreed upon and discussions are under way and will post more news on that later on this week, when things will be more clear.

Mr. Waite, also said that “the new compromise paper on the future EU budget 2014-2020 from Council President Herman Van Rompuy is a serious concern, which foresees a €25 billion cut in the CAP budget – beyond the 12% reduction in real terms that the Commission has proposed.”

• For Pillar 1, the new paper sees a further cut of €13.2 billion in real terms – equal to -4.88 % in Direct Payments (-4.66% for Pillar 1). In addition, the Crisis Reserve (initially budgeted at € 3.5 billion, now reduced to € 2.8 billion) is now financed through Pillar 1, meaning that the overall reduction in direct payments could be as high as €16.0 billion or 5.92 %.

• The reduction in Pillar 1 funding will probably also mean substantial cuts in the programmes for wine, fruit & vegetables and for the outermost regions (POSEI) 

• On rural development/Pillar 2, the original Commission proposal was already a reduction of more than 10% in spending in real terms. Now the negotiating box is seeking a further cut of €8.3 billion in constant prices / -9.03 %. This could mean a reduction of more than 20% in many Member States.